Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. Played it pretty cool, just some dinner and drinks with some pals. The above photo was from a couple of years ago, when a bunch of us went down to Mideval Times in Schaumburg. It was pretty awesome, just like the scene in the film Cable Guy. I had a bit too much Mead (bud light) and security told me to cool it as my plate smashing was 'scaring the horses'. Yeah, like the sword play and jousting wasn't? I just wanted everyone to know the Red Knight was the best knight.Either way, yesterday was mellow. My buddy Good Times shares my birthday date, and I asked him what he did for his big day yesterday:"I drank some Italian liquor made out of fermented Rubarb, I think its called Campari, then smoked a huge blunt. Probably not the best idea I've had."

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Monday, October 27, 2008

Ran into Team GT's newest hammer yesterday, Lee Unwinn, at Washington Park. I've worked with Lee for a couple of years on various projects. He is a PRO in the truest sense of the word. Typically, he's more of a slow twitch type (read likes going round in circles for 24 hours) but this season he's throwin' down on the Cross circuit. Always good to bump into him. He shot me a link on his blog today, so I figured I return the favor!

'You Stink' Those were the first words out of Jen's mouth last night when she picked me up after MOTAB. Well gosh, it's nice to see you too!Long day yesterday. Got rollin early with Lyle, Kelly and Colin. Got to Washington Park with what seemed like plenty of time, then all of a sudden, Djonn, Ryan and I find out we're racing 45 minutes earlier than we though, and we jumped into the start sans warm up. Brutal from the start. Didn't feel well ever. The picture is of Planet Bike's newest rider Billy Knutson chasing me down. He caught me a couple of times, and finally put me away on the last lap...sorry for trying to take you dowwwn Bill on lap 2. I skipped my left pedal off a root on the inside of a turn, and tail whipped old Bill right off his bike. 29th place on the day out of 60 plus, but there were 10 guys I could see not that far up, on a different day, it would have been top 20 for sure...Lots of Superfanning for the rest of the day. Bunny hops through fire balls, a Sparks Hand-Up. Before leaving Milwaukee, we stopped at The Sanchez household for some chow. Seriously, Carrie well done on the tacos.Rolled back to Madison in style (i.e. a Cadillac Deville). Grabbed a drink and Mickeys and headed out to MOTAB. Last night was the 4th anneversary of uninterupted MOTABs.Low turn out and cold, otherwise good.Which brings me to the Jen comment. I guess a day of racin, eating, hangin out outside, and drinkin doesn't make a dude smell so good...

Friday, October 24, 2008

I've flown a "few" times with a bike. The experience can be anything from seemless, to nightmarish. Personally, I'd love to be able to ride to and from the airport everytime I fly somewhere. Get to the airport, take the bike apart and pack it, get where I'm going, grab the bike from the baggage claim, build it ride away. Obviously idealistic, but for many of my travels this could work just fine. No rentals, or waiting for a shuttle, etc. It's also a great way to see the city you are visiting.I read this morning on Bikeportland.org that the PDX airport is toying with the notion of providing a bicycle assembly area for travellers. Thats pretty rad!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

New shirt design for Swobo. A couple of months ago Swobo asked for new t-shirt ideas so I emailed Tim Parr and told him about this concept that I had. He was into it, but made no promises...today I find out, HELL YEAH, I guess they did like it! Buy One.

Djonn brought the Eric Joyner interview on Fecal Face to my attention the other day. Some sweet pics of his stuff. He typically paints robots and donuts, mainly mid century tin robots. He's got a collection of 30 or so that he looks to for inspiration. Then last night I picked up issue #93 of Juxtapoz, guess who has a profile? yep, Eric Joyner.

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Alpinist is gone. I don't consider myself an alpinist, nor an expert on magazines, rather an enthusiast in both. The Alpinist, like The Surfers Journal, is one of those rare magazines that went its own way, and put out a beautiful periodical. You wouldn't see tons of ads, lists for must see places, or the latest gear. You would see breath taking photos, and rich, vivid writing. Sad to see it go, but it had been a tough year. Truely it "appealed to a demographic with a penchant for living in pickup trucks"

Weekends like this don't come along very often...and when they do they need to be savored.Rode to Saris Friday night with Heath and Chris to the Bike Fed/Saris Gala fundraiser. Lots of good freinds, tons of cash raised (Over $100K is the report, largest one day fundraiser of its kind for a bike advocacy organization) Spent a long time talking to Pete from Cog. Get ready for their Photo Annual that will be out soon, its going to be sweet.Saturday watched Jen race at Badger Prairie, got some house work done, then headed to Revolution Cycles Saturday night for a fund raiser to buy a wheel chair. Kelly wanted to raise $2K, but EVERYONE came through huge to bring in $4K to help Brad pay some bills, AND buy his own wheel chair.

A pretty good night to be in Madison. Positive energy. Big Time.

Yesterday down to Janes-vegas for the Gibbs Lake Showdown. My favorite cross course. Period. Way to go Cory, the venue, the food, the live band, everything. It was a day of firsts:First recorded pastry hand upFirst dollar bill hand up for the elite ladiesFirst live snake hand upFirst small child hand up

Pretty much if we can find it, we'll try to hand it up to racers. Then after we were done racin and super fannin, we took our keg, stopped at the Janesville Hooters (as is the custom) and headed back to Lyles to drink a bit more. Slept like a dead animal last night.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My lunch followed a similar path to Cale's, only with less suck and more awesome. We jammed over to the Prince, one of those places that doesn't need to even bother with a sign.The entry way is void of any corporate meters. A simple sign tells you about something that will no doubt be tastey...As far as I know, Refresco means good lunch.Pastor tacos with cilatro, onions and goat cheeze? This is going to be awesome.Yep...it has been confirmed. My choice was a good one. While Noodles may be acceptable, when compared to the Prince: everything else loses.

David Lee Roth, son. It is from He, the Diamond one, that I learned as a youth what the words "Rockstar" meant. Speaking of Rockstars, I came across this quote:

"A rock star is not someone who takes the temperature, who gauges the marketplace before he creates his "art". A rock star is someone who needs to create and is willing to tolerate the haters along with the fans. He’s someone who incites controversy just by existing. That’s what we lost in the dash for cash. Unique voices. I’m not saying we haven’t ended up with some pleasant music, but it just hasn’t hit you in the gut, it’s the aural equivalent of Splenda, it might do the trick, but it’s not the real thing. The real thing grabs your attention, drives down deep into your heart and lodges itself there. A rock star doesn’t follow conventions, doesn’t go disco or add drum machines just because everybody else does. A rock star exists in his own unique space, and if you met him you probably wouldn’t like him. Because he tends to be self-focused to the point of being narcissistic. Because he cares. He needs to get his message out." - Bob Lefsetz

Via Tim Parr at Swobo on the Bummer Life weblog. Parr went on to say the bike industry needs more rockstars. I agree. I think you'll see some changes in the next few years...the industry is getting pretty silly. The carbon stuff is out of control...bikes are getting to be pretty disposable. That is just down right stupid.

Monday, October 13, 2008

EO took this shot at the Rapha booth during this weekend's Oregon Manifest show. It's the new Rouleur Photo annual. The last one was pretty sweet, I can only imagine this one will be at least as good. Hopefully it costs less than the $750 dollar jacket they were displaying.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A lot has happened since Betty White opened fire last Wednesday. The Wed. Nite Ride was one for the books. A pretty good crew ended up under the Hwy 30 underpass for a hobo party. A duo Matt-Pat from Willy Bikes joined us. We worked on our burn barrel skills, and booze drinkin. The ride home with an empty Bob trailer was a good one. Perfect weather, empty roads, and some of my top secret training course.Thursday was not so good. Hang Over City, population me...a long slow 13 mile ride in, busy day, a cancelled tatoo appointment, and bed at 9 pm. Friday I took a day for myself, and it was sure nice. Perfect weather. Lots of coffee drinking, book reading and leg resting. No cross racin' this weekend, as I pulled the plug on the UP trip.Today was a day of some bike work and football watching. I said goodbye to an old friend; the drive side Profile crank arm on the Gunnar finally cracked, joining its non-drive partner in the parts bin. Those cranks were light, and looked great, but if a 125 lb guy can crack them, well...We also have spent quite a bit of time cooking locally the last few days. We picked up our share on Thursday and I got everything cleaned and sorted right away. Slow food the last few days, and lots of greens. Sun Prairie farmers market this morning, and I'm stoked to try some Wisconsin grow wild rice that we picked up. Carrot cake is planned for tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

I've been keeping an eye on Freeman Transport for a while now. They are making bikes that come standard with S&S couplings. Handmade in Montana. Benny Gold did their logo.Their stuff looks good. Really classy. I like how they think "ride your bike to the airport" etc. In line with my own mantra. Anyways, their site just went live, check it out. I may have to see about getting one of their cases, mine looks like garbage compared to theirs.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

kevin smith photoCross race at Cam-Rock yesterday. The course was super fast and smooth. Jen had a blast. It was probably the best race I've ever had. I felt pretty good, the bike worked really well. Still can't believe I was only 21st out of 50 some guys, as I was picking guys off the whole race. The start was crazy as we couldn't string out enough to make the first turn in a line...guys were all over the place. Then the Superfans took up out position on beer mountain for the 3s and the Pro 1 2 races. I think a good time was had by all. It was LOUD!Had some burritos after the race, and I was asleep around 6 pm. Wow. I feel pretty good today, but no interest in Lapham Park. Time to stretch out and continue relaxing.

Friday, October 03, 2008

There is a bread factory near the office and I walk by this stack of bread trucks all the time. I nabbed one the other day and began tinkering with it. What I'm after is a light, cheap front rack. I've got a design in mind, I'll keep you posted as to how it goes. Really thinking I want something large enough to set a large pizza on, but strong enough to carry a few cases of beer.

We were leaving the Sands on Thursday I believe, headed back to the 8-Ball. There were several of us all on single speeds, except for Jay who was on a geared beater. We pulled up to the corner of Koval and Tropicana, where Lennard Zinn was waiting to cross. He looked at our crew, then at our bikes and said to Jay "You must not have got the memo."

I damn near pissed myself. And I have a whole new respect for that guy.

I stayed off the strip entirely this year, I can't stand that place. I did finally get to Freemont Street "Old Vegas" to see the Kicking Cowboy and all that stuff. Had some great mexican food. But by far the coolest thing I saw was at the Rickshaw Bagworks booth, the "Beerdoleer". I went to buy one, but they were down to their last one and wouldn't sell it to me. I stole the pic from Stevil over at HTATBL. Rickshaw is some of the OG crew from Timbuk 2. I've been keeping my eyes on their site since last Interbike. Their bags a really well thought out.Tonight I'm going to put drop bars on the cross bike, and switch it to a one speed. Should be a heck of a lot lighter for this weekend. Thats about all I got today, it was 43 degrees outside this morning...cold.

Not sure if you've got your hands on the new issue of Dirt Rag or not. It's good as always, and the cover this issue is one of my favorite yet. An old buddy Kevin Nierman really hit the nail on the head with this one.

In other news, Interbike is still kickin' my ass, piles of stuff on my desk to do yet. Cross this weekend; Cam-Rockin on Saturday and Lapham Peak Sunday. Sweet. I gotta put my bike on a diet before then, and I think I have just the stuff I need for that.